Description: Low base of white marble incomplete at both sides and damaged along all edges
(w:
1.09 x h:
0.23 x d:
0.43).
Text: Inscribed on one face which is badly worn.
Letters: First-second century: Hadrianic or early Antonine, rather lightly and carelessly cut, with stops for abbreviations and after
some words. Line 1, 0.03; line 2, 0.025; lines 3-4, 0.02.
Date: First to second century
Findspot:
Cyrene: Wadi Bel Ghadir: Found in 1916,
near the east spring and under the ‘torette cadente’ (of the Acropolis so Oliverio).
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Cyrene Museum.
Italian translation
Translation source: Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936
Claudia Venosta, di Claudio Cartistene Migliore figlia, la (statua della) grande Demetra, a proprie spese e il tempio (consacrò).
English translation
Translation source: Reynolds, 2012
Claudia Venusta, daughter of Claudius Kartisthenes Melior, (gave) the great Demeter from her own funds, and the temple.
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
Kl(audia) Benosta (i.e. Cl(audia) Venusta), daughter of Kl(audios) (i.e. Cl(audius)) Kartisthenes Melior, (gave) the great Demeter from her own funds, and the temple.
Commentary
Claudia Venusta and her father also figure in C.496, C.456, C.497 and C.498 which record other dedications that she made, almost certainly in this Sanctuary. See further on C.456; but note that for the title of Demeter Venusta retained the Cyrenaican dialect forms.
line 3 for μεγάλη as an epithet of Demeter, see Br. Müller, ΜΕΓΑΣ ΘΕΟΣ (Halle, 1913) f., and for the epithet in general, commentary on C.64. In Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter, 121,ὣς ἁμὶν μεγάλα θεός (at Perseus), it is not used as a cult title. The unusual use of the accusative Δαμάτραν is noteworthy, cf. Epigr. ap. Paus. I.37.2
Bibliography: Oliverio, DAI, 1933-1936, 72 (64), pl. XIX, fig. 27, whence SEG 9.164, PHI 324015; Reynolds, 2012, B.3.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
None available (2020).